Page 56 of Shades of Ruin (Sharp Edges Duet #2)
Chapter Forty-One
GREYSON
I can see her from the very back of the dining room, her bright blonde hair shimmering like a halo encircling the head of the least angelic person I know. I’m not even surprised to see that she’s dressed completely in red—it’s always suited her, and she’s smart enough to play to her assets.
She taps her red nails against the table, a huge diamond ring on her left hand—courtesy of current husband number four. As one of the biggest tycoons in France, he’s certainly an upgrade from Blaise. My golden girl has turned gold-digging into an art form at this point.
She senses my approach, flicking her hair over her shoulder as she turns to face me for the first time in a decade.
Her features are as stunning as the day we met, multiple cosmetic procedures ensuring that her face remains frozen in place.
She doesn’t look a day older than the last time I saw her in that cafe in Paris.
Ten years, and nothing has changed. Nothing except for her eyes—they’re so cold and lifeless, like her soul was snuffed out long ago, every periwinkle fleck of innocence gone.
“I’ve been waiting for you, Grey,” she purrs, her voice a little sharper than I remember. “I’ve been waiting so long.”
“I told you were we done ten years ago,” I bite, refusing to give in to whatever the fuck this new manipulation is. “Did you not believe me, Aurélie? Or were your own lies so convincing you started to believe them yourself?”
“Did you meet your son?” she asks, hoping to throw me off by flipping the conversation away from her.
“Starting with the biggest lie first, then?” I slide into the chair across from her. I get a jolt of satisfaction when she flinches away from my sudden closeness. She may be a predator, but she knows I am too.
“I met Tobias. He’s an amazing boy in spite of who raised him.” I slam my arms on the table and lean across it so she’s forced to pull back. “But he’s not my son.”
A cunning smile spreads across her red lips. “Certainly you’re smart enough to do the math, Grey? He’s nine years old. You and I both know you were the only person I was sleeping with that summer. And you came inside me every fucking time.”
She’s not wrong, and I’m the luckiest bastard in the world that being such an irresponsible asshole didn’t land me with some sort of demon spawn bearing the blood of two murderous parents. Tobias really dodged a bullet there.
“Did you see his eyes?” she adds, pointing out the most damning piece of evidence. Because he does look like me. “There’s no doubting he’s your son.”
“Well, a DNA test says that he isn’t.” She’s wrong if she thinks she holds all the leverage here.
Her smile falters. “What do you mean?”
“I found him last year. I noticed the resemblance. Like you said, I was smart enough to put two and two together. But I also know that you’re a scheming bitch, so I had someone collect and test a sample first. The results came in with a resounding negative. For both of us.”
I lean back in my chair, enjoying my checkmate with a smug smirk. “He’s not your son either.”
“What could you possibly be suggesting?” she asks, her voice falsely outraged. But both know lies are a fundamental part of her personality.
“You adopted him when suspicion around your husband’s disappearance was at its highest,” I answer with an educated guess. Maybe I should apologize for pointing that suspicion in her direction in the first place, but I don’t. Even when I took out Blaise, I was playing into her hands all along.
“You thought motherhood would make you look more sympathetic to the police,” I continue. “And it worked, didn’t it? It’s a shame for Tobias you didn’t give him back after you’d used him like you use everyone else.”
Aurélie scoffs, the sweet and innocent act shattering in one, startling moment. Those eyes I thought were dull and dead suddenly brighten with a viscous, serpentine gleam. This is who she’s been all along; she just didn’t let me see her without her mask until now.
“Don’t act like Tobias hasn’t been cared for. He’s been provided every luxury in life. He has everything he could ever want.”
“Nannies and tutors and personal chefs and house staff and mansions don’t make up for what he’s missing, Aurélie.”
She rolls her eyes. “And what is that?”
The fact that I have to explain it at all means she’ll never understand.
“Something you’ll never have the capacity to give him.
Something all the money in the world couldn’t make up for.
It would be hard for you to understand since you’ve always picked wealth over love, but it’s not fair to make Tobias suffer for your choices.
He deserves to live a real life. A full life. ”
Her smile turns so cruel, a shiver slides over my skin. “Awfully attached to a little brat who isn’t yours, Grey.” She takes a long sip of her wine, the Bordeaux staining her lips a deeper shade of red. “But then, you always did have a bleeding heart.”
“Yes, and you never had one at all.” I wish I had a glass of whisky to dull the rage coursing through my body.
“This again,” she snaps as my words dig their way under her skin. “I kept your secret. I never told anyone about Blaise. I protected you because I care.”
“We both know you kept my secret because you’d be implicated. You’ve never done anything in your life that didn’t benefit yourself.”
I grab the glass from her hand and drain the last of her wine just to see the irritated look on her haughty face. “I watched you for the first couple years, you know. I never got close myself, but I kept tabs on you. It wasn’t long before I noticed the pattern.”
“Pattern?” she questions, playing coy. It doesn't suit her like it did a decade ago.
“You’d marry some rich bastard. Someone whose work took them out of the country a lot.
Then whenever your darling husband was away, you’d fuck around—always naive, poorer boys out of your social circle.
Starving artist types who would see you as a muse and worship you.
I wasn’t your last. I wasn’t even your fucking first. I was just your type . ”
I twist the glass in my hands, watching the last drop of wine swirl around the bottom so I don’t have to look at her red lips. “You know, I didn’t believe Blaise when he told me about you, but it seems the pig wasn’t as much of a liar as you are.”
“Developing a soft spot for my first husband, Grey? Maybe regretting your decision to butcher him like an animal? It was beautiful work, I have to admit.”
Of course she would appreciate the blood and gore. She’s a monster just as much as I am .
“Not at all. I’ll never regret sending one more bastard to hell.” I meet her gaze, trying to sift out the predator who lurks behind those blue eyes. “But now I’m not so sure you don’t belong there with him.”
Her face lights with genuine glee, the smile on her lips the same one she’d wear when we’d sneak kisses ten years ago. “I knew you would figure it out eventually,” she gasps with excitement. “I just didn’t expect you to let the body count get so high.”
My blood turns to ice. “So it was you. The dead girls with the missing hearts.” It’s not a question because I already know the answer. I just need her to say it.
“Of course, mon chéri ,” she purrs. “I couldn’t let you have all the fun.”
“Blaise wasn’t for fun,” I snarl, hating how casual she is about taking an innocent life.
“Now who’s lying?” she asks as her smile turns sly.
“I know you felt it too. That rush of heat that penetrates your core when the warm blood starts to slicken your skin. The power of holding their life in your hands and feeling it slowly fade out. You know, I came the first time I killed? Rode my bloody hand while the bitch spasmed and died beneath me.”
My stomach twists inside me. “You’re sick, Aurélie.”
“Sinners don’t get to judge, Grey. Your hands are just as dirty as mine.”
“Mine aren’t stained with the blood of innocents.” I may not have many lines I won’t cross, but that is one of them.
“Who can really be the judge of innocence?” Aurélie scoffs.
“Satine was a strung-out whore who needed pain to drown out all the times daddy hurt her. Collette was a selfish, petty bitch who bullied every person she could to compensate for her own boring insignificance. Sophie was a meddlesome old cunt who dragged you to a sex den full of putes and pédés so that you would forget me. The world is no worse without them.”
My heart stops beating altogether. Sophie . “What the fuck did you do to Sophie?” I demand, my voice rising with each word until I’m practically shouting.
“Oh Grey, did you not figure that one out?” Her eyes twinkle with cruel delight as I’m forced to stare at the killer of my oldest friend. My first true family, apart from my sister. “I hear her heart just gave out, poor old thing,” Aurélie continues. “They never recovered it, you know. Her heart .”
“I will kill you.” It’s not a threat. It’s a promise.
“Oh I doubt that.” She leans against the table, framing her face with her red nails. “You see, if you try, I’ll come for everyone left that you hold dear.” She taps her nails against her cheek. “What about your sister and her sweet little girl? Elia, was it?”
“Stop,” I choke out, unable to clear my mind of the image of their faces lying amongst Aurélie’s carnage.
“Or there’s your beloved M at your filthy little sex club in Paris.”
“I swear to god?—”
“Or there’s your newest friend, Kara. From what I hear, I wouldn’t even be the first in line wanting to slit her pretty throat.”
“Fucking stop!” I shout, jolting to my feet and letting my chair fall to the floor. I don’t turn to see who’s noticed the scene. I don’t dare take my eyes off the blonde, apex predator in front of me.
“Or I could skip right to dessert,” Aurélie taunts, flicking her tongue over her lips. “Angélica tastes so sweet, doesn’t she?”
I see red, everything in my vision tinged in a bloody shade. “Don’t you fucking go anywhere near her.”
“Do you think the heart of the girl you’ve fallen for looks any different from the others? Or will it bleed red just the same?”
“You’ll never have the privilege of finding out,” I hiss.
“Oh please, that pastry whore is just a sad little knock-off of me. Why waste time on the imitation when you can have the real thing?”
“No, Aurélie. You have been the one trying to steal her life for ten years. It was never meant to be you. It was always meant to be her .”
Aurélie’s sweet smile falters. “What do you mean? I know nothing of her. She was a nobody until she showed up at your restaurant eight months ago. Being close to you is the only thing that ever made her special.”
“No, Aurélie. That girl has been special her entire life, in more ways than you can even dream of. You stole her place ten years ago at Dix. She would have been mine then. Instead, I had to wait a goddamn decade to finally find her. You fucked with her fate, and I hope to God fate fucks you right back.”
It’s a moment before recognition flickers in her eyes. “The girl from Colombia? That’s who you’ve gone soft for?”
“ That girl was always meant to be mine . You were just a distraction who had to cheat your way into a competition you never earned. And now you’re carving out hearts like a lunatic to catch the attention of someone who will never, ever give a fuck about you.”
“You were always my favorite, Grey,” she hums with an indulgent, sweet edge to her tone. “No one ever compared. And even though you’re cruel, I still love you.”
“That’s as much a lie now as it was then, chérie ,” I snarl.
“I still want you, Grey. After all these years, I’ve never wanted anything more. We’re the same, you and I. Together, we could be unstoppable.”
“I would rather you cut out my heart to add your grotesque collection than ever give it to you freely.”
“That could be arranged,” she seethes. “If I can’t have you, I don’t see why anyone should.”
“And there’s the psychotic bitch we all know and hate,” I announce with a clap. “Thought you were getting sentimental on me for a minute.”
Her eyes narrow. “You should be careful, Grey. I don’t have to hurt you to make you suffer.”
“Yes, Tobias told me about your little torture tactics. But what sort of monster would use them on a child?” I shake my head in disgust. “He’ll be staying with me, by the way.
You’ve already told everyone I’m his father, so it looks like he and I have nine years of father-son bonding to catch up on. ”
“Do you think I care if you keep the ungrateful boy? It will just give you another weak point to exploit.” She glances down at her sharpened nails. “The way I see it, you have too many as it is.”
I cross my arms over my chest and glare down at the woman I was once naive and stupid enough to love. “I’ll take my chances. Now get the fuck out of my restaurant.”
Without a word, she gathers her things and stands. Opening up her purse, she pulls out a thick stack of hundreds and throws them on the table, just like I did the last time I saw her on a rainy day in Paris.
Her dark blue eyes flick up to mine, the teary sadness in them so pure I could swear they were real.
Until her red lips pull into a sinister smile that melts away every drop of false-brokenness in her expression.
Apart from her mind, there’s not a damn broken thing about her.
She’s livid, and she’s dangerous, and there’s no knowing what she might do next.
“ Bonne nuit , chéri ,” she calls in a voice sweet as ripened cherries before walking out into the night.
I have a gut feeling this isn’t the end of her. Not yet, anyway.